Quests: Design, Theory, and History in Games and Narratives



Quests: Design, Theory, and History in Games and Narratives

Dr. Jeff Howard

Fall 2009

(a.k.a. “Writing for Interactive Media” or “Gaming and Literature”)

| |Discuss |Read |Play |Design |

| | |(Required Reading) |(Required Gaming) |(Assignments |

| | | | |Due) |

|Unit One: Introduction to Questing |

|Week One | | | | |

| | |Quests Preface, |Interactive fiction | |

| | |Introduction, and Chapter |(Colossal Cave | |

| | |One |Adventure or another | |

| | | |representative game of| |

| | | |your choice) | |

|Week Two |History and theory of |Course Packet (Tronstad | | |

| |quest games |“Semiotic and Nonsemiotic | | |

| | |MUD Performances” | | |

| |Ludology versus | | | |

| |narratology |Aarseth “Quest Games as | | |

| | |Post Narrative Discourse,” | | |

| |Meaning and action | | | |

| | |Susana Tosca “The Quest | | |

| | |Problem in Computer Games”)| | |

| |History of quest |Frye from Anatomy of | |Assignment Due: |

| |narratives |Criticism, Excerpts from | |Sir Gawain Design |

| | |The Hero with a Thousand | |Document # 1 |

| |Symbolism, allegory, and |Faces, | | |

| |symbolic correspondences | | | |

| | |Excerpts from The Odyssey | | |

| |The hero’s journey | | | |

| | | | | |

| |Epic, myth, and romance | | | |

|Unit Two: Quest Spaces |

|Week Three | |Quests Chapter Two |Graphical Adventure |Level Design Tutorial |

| | | |Games |# 1; |

| | |Read Sir Gawain and the |(King’s Quest or |Level Design Exercises|

| | |Green Knight¸ Books I-II |another representative|1-4 |

| | |(Quests: Appendix B) |game of your choice) | |

| | | | | |

|Week Four |Spatially encoded meaning |Read Jenkins “Game Design | |Design Document # 1 |

| | |as Narrative Architecture” | |(Level Design) |

| |Challenge, progression, | | | |

| |and re-configuration | | | |

|Week Five |Learning to use a level | | |Assignment Due: |

| |editor | | |Level Prototype |

| | | | |(Aurora, TECS, or |

| |Tile-based levels, | | |UnrealEd) |

| |terrain, and | | | |

| |height-mapping | | | |

|Unit Three: Quest Characters |

|Week Six |Iconic characters |Quests Chapter Four, |Single-Player RPG: |NPC Construction |

| |Quest-givers | |Planescape: Torment or|Tutorial # 1, |

| | |Excerpts from Propp on |another representative|NPC Construction |

| |Villains |“Dramatis Personae” |game of your choice |Tutorial # 2 |

| | | | |Design Document # 2: |

| |Helpers |Read The Faerie Queen, Book| |Character sketch and |

| | |I (Quests: Appendix C) | |dialogue |

| |Principles of dialogue |Daniel Erickson: “A | |Assignment Due: |

| | |Craftsman’s Guide to | |Completed quest-giver |

| | |Interactive Dialogue” | |dialogues |

|Week Seven |Continue Quest Characters | | | |

|Unit Four: Quest Items |

|Week Eight |Quests Chapter Three |Excerpts from La Queste del| | |

| | |Saint Graal (The Quest of | | |

| | |the Holy Grail, Ed. P.M. | | |

| | |Matarasso) | | |

| | | | | |

|Week Nine |Symbolic artifacts, | |MMO: World of |Object Creation |

| |The rod of seven parts | |Warcraft, Age of Conan|Exercises 1-4 |

| | | |or another | |

| | | |representative game of| |

| | | |your choice | |

| |Propp’s absent objects | | |Object creation |

| | | | |exercises continued |

| |Hitchcock and the McGuffin| | | |

|Week Ten |Gameplay, visual | | |Design Document # 3: A|

| |appearance, and function | | |Quest Item |

| |in game economy | | | |

| | | | | |

|Unit Five: Quest Challenges |

|Week Eleven | |Quests Chapter Five | | |

| |Bridging the | |Survival Horror: |Scripting Tutorials |

| |interpretative and | |Eternal Darkness or |1-3 |

| |configurative functions | |another representative| |

| | | |game of your choice | |

| |Core mechanics and magic | | | |

| |systems | | | |

|Week Twelve |Puzzles |Read excerpt from Danesi’s |Action-adventure: Ico |Assignment Due: |

| | |“The Puzzle Instinct” |or another |Scripting Exercises |

| | |Read excerpt from Barton |representative game of|1-3 |

| | |Dungeons and Desktops |your choice | |

| | |Read excerpts from “Childe | |Design Document # 4: a|

| | |Roland to the Dark Tower | |puzzle |

| | |Came” and The Dark Tower, | | |

| | |Volume I (romantic and | | |

| | |modern quest narrative) | | |

|Unit Six: Final projects |

|Week Thirteen | |Final projects and | | |

| | |play-testing | | |

|Week Fourteen | |Assignment Due: Final | | |

| | |quests in Aurora, TECS, or | | |

| | |UnrealEd | | |

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